Table 51.

Enrollment in foreign language courses compared with enrollment in grades 9 through 12 in public secondary schools: Selected years, fall 1948 through fall 2000

[Number in thousands]
Language	Fall 1948		Fall 1960	Fall 1965	Fall 1968	Fall 1970	Fall 1974	Fall 1976	Fall 1982	Fall 1985	Fall 1990	Fall 1994	Fall 2000	Percent change in enrollment
														1976 to 1990	1990 to 2000
1	2		3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Total enrollment, grades 9 to 12	5,602	1	8,589	11,602	12,723	13,336	14,103	14,314	12,405	12,388	11,341	12,215	13,517	-20.8	19.2
All foreign languages2
Number enrolled	1,170		2,522	3,659	3,890	3,779	3,295	3,174	2,910	4,029	4,257	5,002	5,898	34.1	38.6
Percent of all students	20.9		29.4	31.5	30.6	28.3	23.3	22.2	23.3	32.2	37.5	40.9	43.6	†	†
Modern foreign languages
Number enrolled	741		1,867	3,068	3,518	3,514	3,127	3,023	2,740	3,852	4,093	4,813	5,721	35.4	39.8
Percent of all students	13.2		21.7	26.4	27.7	26.4	22.1	21.1	21.9	31.1	36.1	39.4	42.3	†	†
Spanish
Number enrolled	443		933	1,427	1,698	1,811	1,678	1,717	1,563	2,334	2,611	3,220	4,058	52.1	55.4
Percent of all students	7.9		10.9	12.3	13.3	13.6	11.9	12.0	12.5	18.8	23.0	26.4	30.0	†	†
French
Number enrolled	254		744	1,251	1,328	1,231	978	888	858	1,134	1,089	1,106	1,075	22.6	-1.3
Percent of all students	4.5		8.7	10.8	10.4	9.2	6.9	6.2	6.9	9.2	9.6	9.1	8.0	†	†
German
Number enrolled	43		151	328	423	411	393	353	267	312	295	326	283	-16.2	-4.1
Percent of all students	0.8		1.8	2.8	3.3	3.1	2.8	2.5	2.1	2.5	2.6	2.7	2.1	†	†
Russian
Number enrolled	—		10	27	24	20	15	11	6	6	16	16	11	46.6	-35.6
Percent of all students	—		0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	#	#	0.1	0.1	0.1	†	†
Italian
Number enrolled	—		20	25	27	27	40	46	44	47	40	44	64	-11.4	58.7
Percent of all students	—		0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.5	†	†
Japanese3
Number enrolled	—		—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	25	42	51	—	102.5
Percent of all students	—		—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.2	0.3	0.4	†	†
Other modern foreign
languages4
Number enrolled	1		9	9	18	15	23	9	3	18	15	59	179	73.0	1,102.3
Percent of all students	#		0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1	#	0.1	0.1	0.5	1.3	†	†
Latin
Number enrolled	429		655	591	372	265	167	150	170	177	164	189	177	8.9	8.3
Percent of all students	7.7		7.6	5.1	2.9	2.0	1.2	1.1	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.5	1.3	†	†

—Not available.

†Not applicable.

#Rounds to zero.

1 Estimated.

2 Includes enrollment in ancient Greek (not shown separately). Fewer than 1,000 students were enrolled in this language in each of the years shown.

3 Until 1990, student enrollment in Japanese courses was included in the Other modern foreign languages category.

4 Includes students enrolled in unspecified modern foreign languages. Since 1990, enrollment in Japanese courses is reported as a separate category.

NOTE: Percent change computed from unrounded numbers.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 1982 through 2000. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Foreign Language Enrollments in U.S. Public Secondary Schools, Fall 2000. (This table was prepared April 2002.)